Tuesday, July 31, 2007

MR. AIRPLANE MAN RETURNS

The sweetest pair of Boston garage rockers is back together after 2 years doing other fun stuff. Tara and Margaret of Mr. Airplane Man were the East Coast's blues princesses, the dynamic duo of New England and the Northeast, giving the Black Keys and the White Stripes a run for their money in that blues duo department. Now they are back with a short tour and hopefully more to come (including a New York gig).

Dates:
Aug 3 2007 @ Quai des Brumes in Montreal, Quebec
Sep 7 2007 @ Haverford College in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania
Sep 21 & 22 2007 @ Abbey Lounge in Somerville, Massachusetts
Sep 28 2007 @ Gonerfest in Memphis, Tennesse

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Recent Letterman Highlights

Grinderman


The National


Porter Wagoner


Gogol Bordello

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Monday, July 30, 2007

No, The Egg Is All Over YOUR Face!

Don't look now but here comes the grand old city of Chicago shouldering a new load of hot, happenin' bands. Introducing the Yolks:

Associations with the Black Lips and the Gories (and sounding a little better upon first listens than both of them) = good. Think Joey Ramone fronting the King Khan and BBQ Show.

Credit to Veronica Brown from T-town, Canada for alerting me to this one like the aforementioned King Khan and BBQ, Black Lips, and for good measure, the Deadly Snakes.

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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Those Wondeful Finds

Recent record shop fun at the Cake Shop, Etherea, and Soundfix have yielded the 7" copies of, among others, these:






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Artist of the Week: Spoon

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga...The eclectic, quirky Austin band Spoon may not be the most exciting or consistent band out there but when they hit it right, they really hit it right.

"You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" is the latest hit but here's their recent classic, the ultra catchy "I Turn My Camera On":

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Saturday, July 28, 2007

Oooooh, the Twilight Zone Set to Music

QB3
@ The Tea Lounge
Brooklyn, NY - July 27, 2007


Slightly psychedelic jam rock live as two episodes of the Twilight Zone play behind them, and eventually the band did a nice extended set. Very Pink Floydish, but in that old London club sort of way, not later arena opera rock sort of way.

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Thursday, July 26, 2007

Always Look On The Bright Side of Life

  • Someone recently asked me why Michael Jackson did the Moonwalk. I honestly couldn't answer him.
  • I liked how when I was doing air guitar whilst listening to tunes on the subway platform at 2:30 in the morning, the Harry Potter people were looking at me like I was the crazy one. That's right, a young man rocking out is way weirder than people in their 20's and 30's dressed up like wizards in celebration of buying a children's book.
  • I am confusing my E's and 5's.
  • Stuff I left out from the Stripes performance: Meg sang well, like a professional singer, and that slowed down version of "Fell In Love With The Girl" was cute.
  • Q train update: Rockabilly bass players getting off at Kings Highway. I am starting to smell venue.
  • OK OK I can't hide behind the lie anymore! I like "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse. And even Lily Allen is growing on me...a little, a smidgen, a tidge.
  • The only good moment in that movie Anger Management is when Turturro says "I lost my job today...we're talking No More Fudgicles!"
  • On a related note, is there a better name in the world than Shooter McGavin?

  • Labels:

    Wednesday, July 25, 2007

    Crowd Follow-Up

    One last note about last night. The crowds are becoming intolerable. Granted, the pit behaved itself but for once, I wanted to see a mosh pit break out, from my perch above them. For my sinister wish, I was given comeuppance when 3 drunk fools crowded over two empty seats and began to harass my friend. I went to do something about it but it became clear that one of the two girls in this trio would alert their male friend and he would want to have a drunken frat boy fight. So this was out of the question. In hindsight, they weren't that obnoxious, mostly I was just jealous because it was clear this guy was going to have a threesome after the concert. Rats.

    Worse was the projectile insanity. The Garden people handed out glow sticks which became missles in the hands of heathens through out the arena. As the show went on, I wanted one to hit Jack so he could flip out, but it never happened. So factor in the fools near me and the fools all around - and the jackoffs complaining about Grinderman - and concert going just gets worse and worse. Plus add that up with the recent Electric Six show at Maxwell's...and well...I don't know. At one point does it become too much? Stay tuned.

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    Ten Years and Ten Days of Le Rouge, Le Blanc, and Le Noir: The White Stripes

    The White Stripes (with Grinderman, Porter Wagoner)
    @ Madison Square Garden
    New York, NY - July 24, 2007


    Ten years and ten days after 2 kids who nearly called themselves the Peppermints played 3 songs at the Gold Dollar in Detroit, Michigan, the White Stripes headlined a show at Madison Square Garden. Some could argue it was a double bill, even a triple bill, considering the weight and respect behind the first two acts, but at the end of the day it was the White Stripes atop the marquee, and it was they who brought upwards of 15,000-20,000 people to the Garden on a Tuesday night. It was they who brought the usual rabble of hipsters, punks, metal heads, frat boys, and classic rockers, tweens, teens, twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, forty-somethings, and beyond. It was they who played for those who only knew "Seven Nation Army" and those who thought "Fell In Love With The Girl" was the signal that they had sold out. For those who thought Get Behind Me Satan was a classic and those who hated its very existence. And for those who think Icky Thump is the triumph of their aluminum anniversary.

    A long way away from that Bastille Day last century, and a month removed from the greatest performance this writer has possibly ever seen by any band ever, the Stripes had a tough task before them. The acoustics of the Garden proved challenging to their sound, at least to those who have heard them in smaller places. They had to appease the most vanilla, mainstream, widespread crowd they've arguably ever attracted, while sticking to their signature ethic and etiquette. They more or less succeeded, but something was amiss - it wasn't firing on all cylinders. The band played well, in fact they played perfectly, but they didn't sound their best. It may have been beyond their control, in fact it probably was, but when even "Ball and Biscuit", the last song before the encore and when this writer left, doesn't sound like the best performance ever, it's not the White Stripes' greatest concert performance.

    (This is the encore I missed: Blue Orchid // I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself // Little Ghost // We're Going To Be Friends // Little Bird -> Catch Hell Blues [DAMN!] // My Doorbell // Seve Nation Army // Boll Weevil)

    Intriguingly, it was the first time I heard and saw Jack play songs straight through and move on to the next one. No stopping short, no returns, no medleys. It was as if Jack felt he had to give the arena crowd a straight up arena show. And while in the past this writer poo-poo'ed the frequent medleys because it would cut off some of the best songs, I sort of missed it this time. "Don't know what you got till it's gone", a hair metal band once sang and it's true.

    Highlights included "Canon" and "Slowly Turning Into You" the latter of which may have been the best song of the night, especially aided by the lights show. But what was up with that elevated platform? Jack only went up there once during the main set, to strut across for a few seconds. We should have at least been treated to an Angus shuffle.

    But above all, this night was about reflections, remembrances, nostalgia, and ultimately, looking to the future. Having just seen them play their most intimiate New York show in years, and hearing and reading all about those special "secret" shows for Canadians these last few weeks, the past and future of the White Stripes and their fans collided and exploded at Madison Square Garden. Having reached the pinnacle of rock n roll stardom (at least for this diffuse day and age), the White Stripes really can't go any further. They sit atop the rock n roll temple as the most respected critics band to be equally popular with the trend setters, the die hard rock n roll snobs, and the mainstream audience. They sit atop that temple with the Steeple of Jack White firmly in place as the man of the hour, of his generation, and all the good and all the baggage that comes with it.

    Five years ago, this writer caught wind of "Fell In Love With The Girl" and over the course of a few months, the White Stripes took over as the band and they haven't really relinquished that spot. Perhaps it is because they are new and regenerate themselves with new records, perhaps it is because they are the nexus of blues, country, punk, rock n roll. For whatever reason, they are the top special. They are responsible for this writer seeing pretty much every single band he has seen over the last five years and every record he has bought. They are responsible for much in the way of personal affairs, private life changing things, and all the good and all the baggage that comes with that. That is some unknown burden (or is it unknown?) for a rock band to have. Especially for just a duo with a really hot drummer.

    It's been quite a road traveled. From those 3 songs at the Gold Dollar, to the Great Biographical Lie, to the MTV Movie Awards, to the Pre-Tour Video, to the Hammerstein Ballroom with Loretta Lynn and Blanche, to jamming with Mick Collins on "Rated X", to those shows with the Strokes, to those four nights at the Bowery Ballroom, to a week's residency at Conan, to a Grammy Performance that blew the world away, to the internet message board that has stirred up lives and emotions not just of fans but of the band itself, to headlining Glastonbury, to being on The Simpsons, to playing every Canadian province and territory and every American state in one tour, including a one-note hullabaloo on the streets of a Podunk Canadian provincial capital, and one night with Nick Cave and Porter Wagoner at Madison Square Garden, this is a road not taken by any other band - neither popular nor respected.

    When Jack sings about redheaded girls he shouldn't kiss, this sums it all up. Everything. From the 3 songs on Bastille Day to Madison Square Garden. People, places, actions, comments, scraps, babies, all of it. It's a sign that some things will probably be forever broken and never repaired, that things have to change for better or worse, that nothing ever lasts, that the circle opens and closes. People move on, people stay, there will be loyalty and gratitude (as assuredly as death, taxes, wristbands, and inchapones), and there will be drama. One could - and should - say that "it should just be about the music" and nothing else should matter. But eventually, even in this sometimes absurd road traveled, those things around the music become the music. And though it is not consequential enough for someone on the outside to look into, think of the survey of the land, of this inexorable relationship between this band and its fans, between this band and their peers who share the same fans, and the fact that some fans become more than fans...blame (or credit) the internet for it, blame (or credit) - or at least question - the mental health of all involved, bands and fans alike, take it all in, and map that road from 3 songs at the Gold Dollar to Madison Square Garden.

    Is it time to look for the exit ramp?

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    Get It On!

    Grinderman (with the White Stripes, Porter Wagoner)
    @ Madison Square Garden
    New York, NY - July 24, 2007


    There were boos. Lots of boos. In the bathroom, some frat jock asshole said he wanted to find Nick Cave on the street and stomp his face in. People complained that the filthy, raunchy blues-psychedelic hard jam of the band wasn't tough enough, perhaps because Nick never fulfilled the legitimacy of a million jock frat boys' dreams of assaulting someone and getting arrested. The people around this writer did not even know who Nick Cave was, let alone Grinderman.

    In short, Grinderman stole the show.

    Grinderman doesn't play music to have sex by. It's music to fuck by. Dirty, grimy, full of muck and smell - Cave and his cabal are not here to mess around. Hanky-panky is for the weak. Unlike their fellow acts of the night, Grinderman's music fit the acoustics of the big joint, reverberating off the walls with an unmatched ferocity. "Get It On", "No Pussy Blues", and something called "When My Loves Comes Down To You" or something like that, particularly displayed this piledriving rock n roll. "Don't Set Me Free" was another highlight. But it wouldn't be Nick Cave without some depth. There are meanings behind at least some of these songs, which is probably what threw the barbarians in the crowd for a loop. Philistines try to ruin everything.
    More thumpish (yes that word) than the record, live Grinderman seems to be right at home in the thunderous arena of the Garden, but would also be right at home on a Saturday night at the Roseland. Book them now. And then go screw.

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    Hey Porter, Hey Porter!

    Porter Wagoner (with The White Stripes, Grinderman)
    @ Madison Square Garden
    July 24, 2007


    The grand ole country legend from nowheres, Missouri - who was the yang (or yin) to Dolly Parton's yin (or yang), got to play at the big old Madison Square Garden. And while it is a little disturbing to hear an old country legend essentially say he's honored to open for Jack White, the Wagonmaster did everything in fine style. Nudie suit in tow, Porter was backed by another venerable country musician, Marty Stuart and a band of good ol' boys. True hillbilly foot-stompin' at times, the rump of the short set consisted of those standard slow country laments which, if you are not a big fan of, did nothing to convert you. But on a night of both nostalgia, reflections, and looking ahead, it was a great way to start the show. This writer was once the only 11 year old in Brooklyn who liked country music and knew who Marty Stuart was (but admittedly only knew of Porter, not by name, as "the old guy Dolly worked with"). It was a nice trip down a very narrow memory lane.

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    Monday, July 23, 2007

    Sonny, 'Trane, and Miles

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    Sunday, July 22, 2007

    I'm Sorry Ladies and Gentlemen

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    Artist of the Week: Grinderman

    Let's officially declare right now that Tuesday night's spectacular is as much about Nick Cave as it is about that other band. In fact, the anticipation, the excitement, let's officially call it right now as being most for Grinderman. DAMN!



    Who would object to really thinking of Tuesday's show as a double bill or even a triple bill with Mr. Wagoner? This isn't Cold War Kids and Dan Sartain. This is NICK CAVE and Porter Wagoner. Am I right? I said, am I right? Can I get an amen?!

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    A Reatard Rides The Ponys

    The Ponys; Jay Reatard; Turbo Fruits
    @ Bowery Ballroom
    New York, NY - July 21, 2007


    Stunning disappointment. I did not like the Ponys. Despite having catchy, boppin' rock records, the live performance was dull. The songs didn't go anywhere. They just sort of lollygagged around. Maybe they needed a keyboard or something. A band from Chicago should be better than they were.
    On the other hand, I was not expecting to enjoy the hardcore antics of one Jay Reatard of Memphis. I never took to the Lost Sounds or his old cohort Alicija Trout. But lo' and behold, it was the show stoppin', hardcore badass, non-stop buzzsaw garage punk of Mr. Reatard and his fellow bushy-haired brethren that trumped the night. Jay and the gang never let up for one minute and perhaps most miraculously, through all that intense, spastic fury, one could make out a cavalcade of three-chord old time rock n roll. It's there, lying just underneath the surface of Jay's Gene Ween-like look (and double kudos to the bass player's neo-classical Jewfro).
    The Turbo Fruits are from, surprise surprise, Nashville. And, as per the rules of any band with "Turbo" in their name, they were a hard, fast-rockin' band. They couldn't be more than a collective age of 5 as well. Just kidding, but they were all under 21 and the drummer in particular looked like he was still figuring out puberity. The band is as hard rockin' as Reatard but also slowed it down here and there, a slight dash of southern sludge but only as a little way to mix it up. Good start.

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    Saturday, July 21, 2007

    I've Run Out of Snappy Titles for Electric Six

    Electric Six; Mobile
    @ Maxwell's
    Hoboken, NJ - July 20, 2007


    The crowds get crazier and crazier all the time at Electric Six shows, even at Maxwell's. Packed to the last possible person, the mosh pit was intense, and I saw crowd surfing for the first time at Maxwell's. I may be wrong but I think even Dick Valentine said "Put him down" as a means to control the crowd but in a subtle, "let me make it sound like it's part of the song so this crowd doesn't think I'm a square" kind of way. Poor Dick, it seems for the first time he's overwhelmed by the audience. My question is, if they are this popular, where are the radio hits? Why didn't this band explode like I predicted back in 2003? It ain't right, I tells ya. There isn't a better party band around, even if they never really mix it up musically, and even with Valentine's increasingly long-winded political monologues (though this night's affair was nowhere near as serious as New Year's Eve, but it was way longer). What sending all the girls in the crowd down Frank Sinatra Blvd and putting them in a giant microwave and zapping them to have sex with an old W. Bush in the future has to do with anything, I don't know.
    Highlights included: "I Buy The Drugs", "Devil Nights", "Future Boys", "Danger High Voltage", "Jimmy Carter", and "Improper Dancing", and "Germans in Mexico". Lowlights include "Slice of You", a terrible song from the last album that I wish Valentine would bury. I also condemn his random "anyone here from Florida" moment and letting some guy come on stage and talk, just to have the guy turn out to be some frat boy jock asshole who brings a woman on stage and, for no reason, starts calling her a whore. And she said something stupid too. Way to go, Dick.

    Mobile is some anglo-american pop rock kinda deal from Quebec. But more than sounding like contemporary pop rock bands, they also sound a lot like the Cult and I was vindicated in this regard when after someone shouted out for "Freebird" (what a crowd huh?), the lead singer asked if anyone liked the Cult.

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    Thursday, July 19, 2007

    New Videos For The Changes

    "When I Wake" has a new performance video, available on the euro label home for Today Is Tonight.

    Here is the video for "Not Too Serious", a song off the recent (?) digital-only EP, Florida. That's two EP's bookending the LP now and it must be said, that neither one has the punch, the tenacity, or the enigmatic symphony of the LP or the live show...at least not on early listenings.

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    Tuesday, July 17, 2007

    Battles Is Joined

    The Noisettes will be opening for Battles at Studio B on Friday night.

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    Stripes Punk Out Their Fans; Fans Love It

    I thought about writing about this last night but I wanted to sit on it and let all the details come out. Sure enough, it was full-on punk-out. The Stripes, via their lackey Blackwell,
    sent the word out to the St. John's fans that they will be playing one note. Exactly one note. And all the while, a rather large number of fans were running up and down the streets of the city on a wild goose chase looking for the site of the one note concert. A radio station was sending out different locations and had the kids running. And the Stripes' roadies (roadies is a poor description, more like Praetorian Guard) were filming the kids on their wild goose chase. Stereogum relays the full details and the clip. (Here is a better clip).
    The image “http://www.stereogum.com/img/whitestripes_ireiteratethisshowwillconsistofonenote.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
    Blackwell relishes in telling the crowd the Stripes will only play one-note.
    (Photo by Colin Ryan)

    In this follow clip, I think you can hear some boos but not the "one more note" chants. Kudos to the one Guard who stops the surging photographer:


    Gotta give it to the fans, they are that sycophantic and devoted ("grateful" as Jack or Ben would put it). Me, I'd have been bitching about the wild goose chase. Exploited for a DVD to show off how much power a band has over its fans. If Jack said to commit suicide would they do it?

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    Sunday, July 15, 2007

    Artist of the Week: The XYZ Affair

    Naming themselves after a pretty significant but relatively forgotten episode in American history, New York based XYZ Affair are putting the pop back in power pop (or are they putting the power back? You decide). They are having a "Pre-Siren Fest" party this Wednesday at Union Pool (though why they are doing so is beyond me since they aren't part of the Siren line-up, which they should be). They will also be at the Mercury Lounge on July 27th.
    Official Website

    Marc Summers! And the best part is, he's playing Marc Summers.

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    Always Look On The Bright Side of Life

  • More proof of the trendification (or something else) occuring along the Q/B line: Foxy, tall, dark haired French chicks reading Le Monde.
  • Remember the guy who got blown up with a bomb around his neck after a bank robbery? Well I didn't.
  • It doesn't pay to be nice but it doesn't pay to be broke either. Rob a bank.

  • Email your love around the world. Text message your sweetheart tonight. Flirt with someone and give them your MySpace page. Above all, have cybersex.
  • CBS-FM is back but it's not oldies. It's the allusion of oldies but it openly admits incorporating the 80's and shunning the 50's. In other words, it's a hybrid between its crappy last phase and the Jack-FM format that replaced it. Along with K-Rock, everything is right back to 2005 again. Whoopee.
  • Everyone should see Le Doulos once before they die.
  • I bought Annie Hall and it played in Bryant Park two days later. I bought Manhattan and the Film Forum is showing it a week later. Word around the campfire is, when I buy Deconstructing Harry, PBS will air a 24-hour marathon of it the next day.
  • "If that blanket has lobster stains on it, or smells like lobster, or both, I apologize". That's something I should have told the girl, instead of just thinking it.
  • You fool! You confused Mates of State with Hope of the States. And now one of those has bands have broken up because of you.
  • I met a girl at the Art Brut show. That sounds like a lyric from an Art Brut song doesn't it?
  • Labels:

    Wednesday, July 11, 2007

    How Things Change

    The Ditty Bops, who once opened for Blanche at Maxwell's and the Merc, will be headlining their own show at Irving Plaza on a Saturday night in September, 20 bucks a ticket.

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    Tuesday, July 10, 2007

    Return of Art Brut, Chapter 2: The Concert

    Art Brut; White Rabbits
    @ Highline Ballroom
    New York, NY - July 9, 2007

    The bunch of dweebs known as Art Brut played for a crowd packed with dweebs, singing songs about being dweebs and the good things that can happen when dweebs get revenge by becoming rock stars. Oh, there were some hip people in the back and in the booths.
    One of the most fun live bands I've seen in some time, Eddie Argos and his gang are having fun playing silly rock n roll and there is nothing wrong with that.
    Eddie shaved the 'stache! He no longer looks like Alfred Molina - well not as much anyway.

    I first caught White Rabbits last year when they opened for Asobe Seksu and Pas/Cal and I forgot all about them until I looked them up after the Siren schedule was announced. That tells you something right there. The songs aren't bad - at least a couple are certified winners - and the sound at the Merc was off so they had a shot at doing it right this time. They sounded better but still need to cheer up and have a good time. Especially compared to Art Brut.

    The Highline Ballroom is, on the whole, a terrific new venue - great sound, great lighting, and it has FOOD. A rock n roll dream come true for some aging oldheads like myself, similar to S.O.B.'s but with a balcony, the Highline offers an impressive menu in a sleek setting that contrasts nicely with the general theme of rock n roll bands on the calendar. I never thought I could write that I saw Art Brut whilst eating salmon tartini with sauteed spinach but alas I can. A bit pricey though.
    One sour note: a bad house DJ. Foo Fighters? Red Hot Chili Peppers? What is this, K-Rock?

    Alternate titles for this review include the following:
    "Go Art Brut, Go!"
    "Dinner and a Date with Art Brut"
    "Top of the Pops!"

    Pics here

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    Sunday, July 08, 2007

    Artist of the Week: Art Brut

    With a new album and their continued agenda to have a good time had by all, Art Brut returns.



    Tomorrow night at the Highline, be there or be square.

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    They Like Suits

    NYC Smoke; November
    @ The Annex
    New York, NY - July 7, 2007


    Who needs a bunch of carbon-conserving stadium concerts when you can hoof it to a small little gig on the Lower East Side? On the opposite end of live music from the Live Earth concerts, a couple little bands played a little place on a narrow street in a not-so small city. And they like to look good. Both NYC Smoke and November (save for the latter's singer) dressed in nice suits but that was where the similarities end. NYC Smoke played an eclectic mix of contemporary rock n roll, fusing pop hooks and sensibilities with an Indie sense of rock. And they did it well. Nashville-based November played contemporary sludge-y hard rock and benefited from a great acoustics at the Annex but on its own, it was really no different than the vanilla hard rock that dominates corporate radio. Plus the name is kind of dull.

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    Saturday, July 07, 2007

    Let It Be Known...

    That at Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, Spinal Tap played after Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, asserting their rightful spot atop Rock's hierarchy.

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    Friday, July 06, 2007

    Free NoJo

    Norah Jones
    @Bryant Park
    New York, NY - July 6, 2007

    Per Good Morning America's free "concert series", Norah did a three song performance in the shadow of the Ghostbusters building (AKA the New York Public Library). As the horror that is morning television prevented the performance from being a true concert, the band sounded fine and maybe the notable news is seeing Norah playing electric guitar for "Come Away With Me". With a Fender around herself, is it possible that this is the first step in Norah's much talked about path to yet another side project, that of the semi-punk Rock n Roll lore of a couple years ago?

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    Wednesday, July 04, 2007

    Piano Men

    Ben Sadock; Steve Espinola
    @ Sidewalk
    New York, NY - July 3, 2007

    A couple of piano men did their balladry thing on a Tuesday night in the East Village. Sadock, a self-described "Graduate Student of Yiddish" by day, sang a mix of Rufus Wrainwright, early Billy Joel, type queries, while Espinola sang more silly, absurd, and at times morbid poetry. This is the kind of stuff that it is good to know it is out there, when you want it, in this roving metropolis of a million things to do.

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    Monday, July 02, 2007

    Afrobeat Rules

    Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
    @ S.O.B.'s
    New York, NY - July 1, 2007


    Afrobeat Rules. So says the shirts for Seun Kuti and so it is that it is also true. The rhythms of Africa tossed and toiled into an American sound, evolved and evolved some more, one day becoming the work of James Brown and George Clinton, brought back to Africa, reworked, evolved, and brought back again, and this is Afrobeat. And this is Seun Kuti. The son of a famed Nigerian musician and social critic, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Seun is an extremely energetic and effervescent musician and singer. He leads a powerful, perfect horn section that is backed up by a non-stop, hard driving, rhythm section. It was a funky good time. A Jazzy good time. A soulful good time. It was all those great African-American-created musical good times rendered full of inter-continental vibe and swing. Afrobeat rules, indeed.

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    Sunday, July 01, 2007

    Artist of the Week: Miles Davis

    Just because.

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    On The Go

    The Go
    @ Pianos
    New York, NY - June 30, 2007


    This one was for pure curious nostalgia. Who were/are the guys that had Jack White toiling around with them back in the late 90's, who were profiled in an early roughly designed Detroit doc but who never again seemed to perform, tour, or cavort with the other Motor City bands on a regular basis? And how fitting it is that they arrive in New York smacked right in between the 2 Stripes shows?
    Essentially a bar band, the guys in the Go have a penchant for 60's psychadelic folk-pop, but of course put through a little bit of the Detroit garage ringer. If they had toured more often a couple years ago, coming through in 2003-2005 when a ton of D-town bands were frequenting the Big Apple, they'd have stood out and offered an alternative approach to the majority of 3-chord peers. But now they just seem a little off. Some songs are quite good, others are meandering, others have the right set-up but break-up on follow through. Nevertheless, it was pleasant taking one last non-Dirtbombs, non-Blanche meta-trip to the Detroit garage (it would have been a longer trip if I had seen the Paybacks open for Joan Jett on Thursday), which was fine considering the word "pleasant" isn't a word really associated with that city's music anymore, in good ways and bad.

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